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typhus, typhoid fever, enteric, continued, relapsing fever,
or puerperal fever, then the head of the family to which such
invalid belongs, or the nearest relative of the patient, or, if
there be no relative, the attendant on the infected person, or
the occupier of the building, shall give notice thereof to the
Medical Officer of Health of the district.
And the Medical Attendant on the patient is required to
certify that such a patient is suffering from an infectious disease,
and in the certificate which he is required to send to the
Medical Officer of Health, there must be stated the name of the
patient, the disease, the address of the building, and the name
of the head of the family, or other person personally liable to
give notice to the Medical Officer of Health under the Act.
For this certificate the Medical Attendant is to be paid halfa-crown.
Every person responsible under this Act, and failing thereon
to give notice or certificate, is liable to a fine not exceeding
forty shillings.
In my previous reports, as Medical Officer of Health, I had
considered how the Act would be likely to work, I may again
observe that this Act aims to prevent the spread of infectious
disease, by making the Sanitary Authority acquainted with all
cases of such disease, and so enabling the Medical Officer of
Health to consider what measures must be taken to arrest its
spread.
Hitherto the difficulty has been to find out where infectious
disease was present, until such cases have culminated
and there has arisen a wide-spread epidemic. Whereas, if
the early cases had been known, much might have been done
to prevent very destructive outbursts.
The operation of the proposed enactment would much
increase the work of the Sanitary Department, for it would be
necessary, on the receipt of a notification and certificate, for the